I’m deciding between a few activities for the short Vanderbilt supplement. I can either write about a research project that I’m doing at a fairly well known lab, or I can write about playing guitar. The research sounds more impressive, but we haven’t done all that much yet, and I’m not very passionate about it. Guitar is much less impressive, and I haven’t really accomplished anything with it, but I care about it more. What would be better: an average essay about something a bit more exciting/impressive, or a better written essay about something somewhat boring?
What are your thoughts?
I wrote mine about my research, and that worked out.
There are other ways to add your research experience to the Common App (maybe through a recommendation letter from your research supervisor?). I wrote about playing piano for my Vanderbilt essay because that was the extracurricular activity I was most passionate about.
Write about something that helps the admissions committee see you beyond your statistics, and get a sense of your personality and passion. It’s been nearly two years since I applied to colleges, but with the luxury of hindsight, I feel that I got into the trap of impressing the admissions committees at the cost of what I really wanted to write about. The best essays come from the heart, not from trying to sound ‘exciting/impressive’. I don’t think any topic is boring per se. It depends on how well you write about it.
You can even take that essay one step further, and get more specific about Vanderbilt. You can talk about pursuing opportunities at Blair, specific student organizations etc, so that it shows that you’re serious about Vanderbilt, and aren’t writing a generic essay. That can help you stand out.
Thank you for the great response. That makes sense, I think I will go with the guitar essay. The research is already reflected on my app, and the music is definitely more important to me. That’s a great idea to connect it to their music programs. Thank you!